College Football Fans: You Are NOT on the Team So Drop the "We"

Normally I despise writing in first person, but, for this purpose of this piece, I find it necessary; my own sensibilities are under assault.

As an editor and fan of this site, I read dozens of articles per week. Many are well-written, informative works about football, basketball, baseball...whatever.

I've noticed, though, that college football writers, especially, seem to use "we" when referring to their favorite teams. Such pronouns, when used in the wrong context, irritate me to no end.

Listen, unless you're affiliated with the program in some form, you are NOT part of said program. Perhaps you graduated from, say, Alabama. Great. Or maybe once, six years ago, you completed a Psychology 101 online course. Good for you.

In either case, your fandom is more reasonable than Johnny's, who likes the Tide simply because the team is a college football powerhouse. Nevertheless, attending a school doesn't qualify you to use "we" when discussing that school.

Not sure if you should use "we" or not? Please answer the following questions:

1. Are you the head coach, a position coach, or a coordinator for "your" team?

2. Are you currently on scholarship (or a walk-on) on "your" team?

3. Hell, are you the water boy on "your" team?

If you answered no to all three questions, you are hereby banned from using "we."

Now that I've set the guidelines, I have one more observation to mention: Ever notice that the "we" fans switch to "they" when their team loses? This morning, for example, I noticed many sentences like so:

"Florida had no chance against Alabama; they were no match for the Tide's defense."

What, you're not part of the team when Alabama's whipping your Gators 31-6? If the tide was turned, however, that same article would read:

"Florida's defense dominated Alabama; we whipped the Crimson Tide in every phase of the game."

It's simple: Everyone loves associating with a winner. That's fine. In fact, jump on the 'Bama, Ohio State, or Oregon bandwagon, even though you have no affiliation with any of those programs.

But please, don't think you had something to do with Duck's shellacking of Stanford just because you purchased an Oregon mini-helmet from Amazon.com. You. Had. Nothing. To. Do. With. It.

Face it, you're just a fan, not a player or coach. So drop the "we" already, okay?